Super Bowl Notes, Quotes & Anecdotes Contents Super Bowl XL . .Page 118 America’s Undeclared National Holiday . .Page 122 The Country’s Most Important Sporting Event . .Page 123 The Game, The Teams, The Players . .Page 125 Economic and Marketing Impact . .Page 128 Television-Radio/Advertising . .Page 132 International Mega Event . .Page 137 Media/Internet . .Page 139 Super Bowl Ring/Trophy . .Page 140 Super Bowl Week—Pregame, Halftime & Postgame Events . .Page 141 Statistics . .Page 143 Super Bowl Miscellany . .Page 145 117 SUPER BOWL XL “The Super Bowl may literally be SUPER BOWL XL America’s new Mardi Gras.” Notes, Quotes & Anecdotes —Mark Rosentraub, author of “The International Economics of Sports” “MY GOD, THE COUNTRY’S MOST IMPORTANT SPORTING EVENT IT’S THE “With all due respect for baseball, this is SUPER BOWL!” really America’s sport.” —Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice —Seahawks owner Paul Allen “For me, I have to be there. It’s my claim to fame.” “More American women watched Super —Tom Henschel, who has attended Bowl XXXIX (in 2005) than the Oscars.” ECONOMIC AND MARKETING all 40 Super Bowls —USA Today IMPACT “I know people who will walk to Detroit “They are coming from everywhere. “Nationally, the economic impact of the for tickets to Super Bowl XL,” said a They are crawling from under the rocks. game is in the billions of dollars—from Steelers fan looking for tickets. They are coming out of the woods.” sales of TV’s and recliners the week —Seattle Times —Steelers running back Willie Parker before (a five-fold increase) to antacids on Super Bowl XL ticket requests the day after (a 20% spike).” —Wall Street Journal “AFTER 40 YEARS, WE’VE ARRIVED “I say now it’s the most important sport- ing event in the world.” Detroit’s Super Ecomonic Boost AT THE ROMAN NUMERALS THAT —Jerry Green, The Detroit News Hosting Super Bowl XL provided a DESCRIBE PRECISELY WHAT THE $273.9-million economic boost to the “If I couldn’t go to anything anymore Detroit area, according to a study by a SUPER BOWL IS ALL ABOUT—XL. except one (sporting event), I would take St. Louis research firm for the Metro AS IN EXTRA LARGE. EVERYTHING the Super Bowl. That’s the best thing I Detroit Convention and Visitors Bureau. can say about it.” —Detroit Free Press ABOUT THIS GAME IS XL, FROM —Edwin Pope, Miami Herald THE MEN WHO PLAY IT TO THE Super Spending THE GAME, THE TEAMS, THE PLAY E R S Each out-of-town visitor spent $363 a MILLIONS WHO WATCH IT TO day on average, not including airfares, THE COMPANIES THAT PAY TO “Ti c k e t s N o w.com, which connects ticket lodging or tickets to the game. buyers and sellers, advertised [Monday] a —Detroit Free Press ADVERTISE IN IT. IT’S SO BIG THAT 40-person luxury suite on the 40-yard line IT’S AN AMERICAN HOLIDAY— for—are you sitting?—$261,000. Another Any Rooms Available? web site priced a box at $315,000. The On Super Bowl weekend, the Detroit- SUPER BOWL SUNDAY.” median home price in the Detroit area area hotels sampled by Smith Travel —USA Today last year was about $169,000.” Research of Hendersonville, Tennessee, —Seattle Times reported occupancy rates of 82% on Friday, 92% on Saturday, and 88% on “It doesn’t matter what race or class, “Contrary to what you hear, there is a lot Sunday. On the comparable weekend a we’re all together as Steeler fans.” of history and pride in Seattle Seahawks year ago, those hotels were only 45%, —David La Forest, relocated football…It just started in 1976.” 48%, and 33% full on average. Pittsburgh native —Seattle Seahawks quarterback What’s more, the average hotel room Matt Hasselbeck rate on Super Bowl weekend was $210 a “Thank you Seahawks! You guys surely night this year; triple the $70 per night know that you’re ‘Alaska’s Team’ as “This feels like the most important pro for the same weekend a year ago. well!” victory Seattle has experienced.” —Detroit Free Press —Seahawks fan Karen Matthews, —Seattle Times after the Seahawks’ who lives in Fairbanks, Alaska NFC Championship Game win to advance to Super Bowl XL AMERICA’S UNDECLARED NATIONAL HOLIDAY “I told myself I wouldn’t cry, but we just won a “…Americans now treat Super Bowl Sunday the same as they treat Christmas Super Bowl and the world can see me cry now. ” or the Fourth of July.” —Super Bowl XL MVP Hines Ward — NFL Report 118 SUPER BOWL XL TELEVISION-RADIO/ADVERTISING It Pays to Follow the Super Bowl S u n d a y ’s (February 5, 2006) episode of “YOU WAIT 13 “Every single second is like gold.” Grey’s Anatomy (37.9 million) doubled the —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette series’ typical audience and was the third most-watched program to follow a Super YEARS TO BE IN A “No event has held up as well in today’s Bowl, behind Fr i e n d s (52.9 million in 500-channel universe as the Super Bowl, 1996) and the premiere of S u r v i v o r : SITUATION TO GO which continues to amaze in the ratings Australian Outback (45.4 million in game.” 2001)…A special Jimmy Kimmel Live hit a —Daily Variety series-high 7.4 million late-night viewers. TO THE SUPER —USA Today, February 8, 2006 “An important Super Bowl first: A purely BOWL, AND IT’S IN female-targeted ad for Dove skin prod- NFL Tops on Television ucts scored unusually high.” NFL viewership on broadcast television —USA Today finished ahead of network prime-time YOUR HOMETOWN. viewership by its widest margin ever in “An average 30-second advertising spot 2005. NFL games on ABC, CBS, and IT’S A DREAM for Super Bowl XL went for $2.4 million.” FOX averaged 15.6 million viewers—61 —NFL Media Research percent higher than the average prime- time viewership among the four major COME TRUE.” “The Super Bowl is a huge, rocket shot over-the-air networks (9.7 million aver- —Pittsburgh Steelers running back of creativity for a day with a tremendous age on ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC). Jerome Bettis, Super Bowl XL amount of viewership.” —Bill Cella, CEO of Magna Global NFL Dominates TV Ratings Super Bowl ratings dominate against all “The Super Bowl remains sports’ entertainment properties. INTERNATIONAL MEGA EVENT premier ad event. It has an engagement PROGRAM RATING value that is second to none. People Super Bowl XL (Feb. 2006) 41.6 “There are 234 countries that watch the come that day riveted to that TV, and 2006 Academy Awards 23.1 game, with 54 international broadcasters the number-one thing that many of them 2006 Golden Globes 12.5 using 32 different languages; 130 inter- want to watch is this advertising.” 2006 Grammy Awards 10.9 national media organizations from 18 —Ed Erhardt, ad sales president 2006 Emmy Awards 10.6 nations receive credentials.” for ESPN/ABC Sports —Sporting News 13 NFL games in the 2005 season had as many or more viewers than prime-time’s five most-watched May season finales…(up from 11 such NFL games in 2004). PROGRAM, NETWORK DATE AVERAGE VIEWERS Super Bowl XL (Seattle vs. Pittsburgh), ABC Feb. 5, 2006 90.7 million viewers AFC Championship Game (Pittsburgh vs. Denver), CBS Jan. 22, 2006 39.0 million viewers American Idol (season finale), FOX May 24, 2006 36.4 million viewers NFC Championship Game (Carolina vs. Seattle), FOX Jan. 22, 2006 35.2 million viewers AFC Divisional Playoff (Pittsburgh vs. Indianapolis), CBS Jan. 15, 2006 33.9 million viewers NFC Divisional Playoff (Carolina vs. Chicago), FOX Jan. 15, 2006 32.7 million viewers AFC Wild Card Playoff (Pittsburgh vs. Cincinnati), CBS Jan. 8, 2006 30.4 million viewers NFL Thanksgiving Game (Denver vs. Dallas), CBS Nov. 24, 2005 26.4 million viewers AFC Divisional Playoff (New England vs. Denver), CBS Jan. 14, 2006 26.3 million viewers House (season finale), FOX May 23, 2006 25.5 million viewers CSI (season finale), CBS May 18, 2006 25.4 million viewers NFC Divisional Playoff (Washington vs. Seattle), FOX Jan. 14, 2006 24.3 million viewers NFL National Game (mostly N.Y. Giants vs. Seattle), FOX Nov. 27, 2005 24.246 million viewers Desperate Housewives (season finale), ABC May 21, 2006 24.233 million viewers NFL National Game (mostly Washington vs. Philadelphia), FOX Jan. 1, 2006 23.1 million viewers NFC Wild Card Playoff (Carolina vs. N.Y. Giants), FOX Jan. 8, 2006 22.8 million viewers Monday Night Football (Pittsburgh vs. Indianapolis), ABC Nov. 28, 2005 22.636 million viewers Grey’s Anatomy (season finale-part 1), ABC May 14, 2006 22.599 million viewers Source: NFL, Nielsen Media Research 119 SUPER BOWL XL “A lot of people seem to fancy watching Super Ad Frenzy SUPER BOWL WEEK—PREGAME, the Super Bowl here,” said Suraj Traffic to GoDaddy.com rose by 991% HALFTIME & POSTGAME EVENTS Solanki, assistant manager at the Sports after the company’s first Super Bowl XL Café, a pub in greater London. ad aired. When the ad re-aired in the Halftime Extravaganza second half, traffic to GoDaddy.com Taking a quick break from their “A MEDIA/INTERNET increased by 1,148%. Within a half-hour Bigger Bang” World Tour, the legendary of Budweiser’s first ad, traffic to its site Rolling Stones performed in the Sprint Super Bowl Ads Impact Websites increased by 81%. As ads continued to Super Bowl XL Halftime Show.